It is known in the art of molding plastic bottle preforms that it is important to cool the molded preforms as quickly as possible. Some proposed machines for the molding of preforms incorporate a large translated and rotary mold cube containing a set of injection mold cores on several faces.
There are some practical limits associated with such machines. One problem is that such machines consume a significant amount of energy to rotate the mold cube because it is very heavy. Additionally, the weight of the mold cube has a negative impact on the length of the injection cycles since more time is needed to translate and rotate a heavy mold cube than would be needed for a lighter structure.
Another problem is that such machines have injection mold cores on each face that are relatively expensive since they form part of the mold cavities and thus are manufactured within strict specifications.
Furthermore, the injection mold cores on each rotating face of the mold cube have to be perfectly aligned with respect to the stationary injection molding cavities coupled to the machine stationary platen.
Also there is a need to provide water cooling on each set of injection molding cores that rotate and the water piping of rotary cores provides a technical challenge that increases the complexity and the cost of such cube molds.
There is a need to provide solution that solves that accomplishes one or more of the following: it provides improved and faster cooling of the preforms, it consumes less energy, and it is less expensive. There is also a need to improve the cooling of the neck finish of the preforms. There is also a need to reduce the footprint of the machine and to better integrate the cooling steps with the injection molding steps.